Study probes how technology invades privacy

A STUDY into the way technology at work can affect privacy has received Pounds 166,000 from the Economic and Social Research Council. David Mason, professor of sociology at the University of Plymouth, and Graham Button, a senior scientist at the Xerox Research Centre Europe in Cambridge, will use case studies to explore how employees react to new technology that tracks their behaviour. Professor Mason said many work systems designed to help stock control or plan work flows had the side effect of giving detailed records of the people who worked there. He wants to discover what people think are legitimate and illegitimate intrusions into their privacy.